We are currently using Windows 2000 disk management to control our mirror drives. We would like to install an Adaptec 2120S RAID controller card and configure RAID 1 on it and remove the software-based mirror currently within Windows. What would be the best way to go about this?
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Switching from software RAID to hardware RAID
- Thread starter hywaydave
- Start date
hywaydave,
The "best" way to about this highly depends on the hardware capabilities that you have. i.e. PCI bus speed, what you see as problems currently, what you are hoping to acheive, etc.
The Adaptec card you ststed requires an available 5 volt or 3.3 volt, PCI 2.2complaint PCI slot, that yields 64-bit 66MHz speeds. If your Mainboard has PCI-X capability you might consider another card.
As you have stated RAID 1, you will have an identical drive at 2X the cost/GB. RAID 5 would provide redundancy at 1.5X cost/GB while being more costly upfront.
Not knowing your requirements, as a general guidline RAID 1 is used for the OS Array and RAID 5-10 for data stores.
Whatever you decide, "backup" completely prior to doing anythind else. Setting the Adaptec is fairly simple and will require initializing (formating) and building the array within the controller environment.
Hope this helps or generates additional questions
rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
The "best" way to about this highly depends on the hardware capabilities that you have. i.e. PCI bus speed, what you see as problems currently, what you are hoping to acheive, etc.
The Adaptec card you ststed requires an available 5 volt or 3.3 volt, PCI 2.2complaint PCI slot, that yields 64-bit 66MHz speeds. If your Mainboard has PCI-X capability you might consider another card.
As you have stated RAID 1, you will have an identical drive at 2X the cost/GB. RAID 5 would provide redundancy at 1.5X cost/GB while being more costly upfront.
Not knowing your requirements, as a general guidline RAID 1 is used for the OS Array and RAID 5-10 for data stores.
Whatever you decide, "backup" completely prior to doing anythind else. Setting the Adaptec is fairly simple and will require initializing (formating) and building the array within the controller environment.
Hope this helps or generates additional questions
rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
- Thread starter
- #3
Well, this was set up as a mirrored drive and we don't want to reinstall the OS or lose any data. The drives are currently residing on a different SCSI controller. Do you see any problems putting the drives onto this new Adaptec 2120S RAID controller? Do I need to modify the boot.ini file ahead of time or install any windows drivers first for this card?
We are stuck with using RAID 1, so I need best solution to my particular situation. Can I build my RAID 1 through the configuration utility without losing my data? And what else needs to be done to put my hard drives from one scsi card to this new one. Thanks again.
We are stuck with using RAID 1, so I need best solution to my particular situation. Can I build my RAID 1 through the configuration utility without losing my data? And what else needs to be done to put my hard drives from one scsi card to this new one. Thanks again.
- Thread starter
- #4
Do you forsee any problems swapping the SCSI cards? Currently they're on an Adaptec 2940, I'm going to hook the two drives to an Adaptec 2120S card and configure RAID 1 (after I break the mirror within Windows). Do you think I need to do anything to the boot.ini file?
hywaydave,
If you can (additional drives) setup both controllers and use an imaging application to image one to the other and then adjust boot sequence in BIOS.
I have never replaced a card from the same mfg. I do know that using different mfg's does require formatting the drives as the controller striping schemes are not identical. This prevents one controller from reconizing anothers scheme. Being both Adaptec I would check driver type & version. You might have luck with breaking the mirror and installing a single drive letting the new controller rebuild the array. I would break the array prior to changing cards as they should be capable of booting as a single drive.
There is a RAID card BIOS that can/needs to be invoked upon boot to config the card/drives (check manual)and this is prior to entering the actual OS. If Adaptec is like others you can define the array there and build it outside of the OS. Windows when loaded should detect new hardware and will/should adjust boot.ini accordingly.
Some of this should be covered in the Adaptec docs for this controller. They usually have excellent documentation.
rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
If you can (additional drives) setup both controllers and use an imaging application to image one to the other and then adjust boot sequence in BIOS.
I have never replaced a card from the same mfg. I do know that using different mfg's does require formatting the drives as the controller striping schemes are not identical. This prevents one controller from reconizing anothers scheme. Being both Adaptec I would check driver type & version. You might have luck with breaking the mirror and installing a single drive letting the new controller rebuild the array. I would break the array prior to changing cards as they should be capable of booting as a single drive.
There is a RAID card BIOS that can/needs to be invoked upon boot to config the card/drives (check manual)and this is prior to entering the actual OS. If Adaptec is like others you can define the array there and build it outside of the OS. Windows when loaded should detect new hardware and will/should adjust boot.ini accordingly.
Some of this should be covered in the Adaptec docs for this controller. They usually have excellent documentation.
rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
- Thread starter
- #6
Well, this is what I did last night....
I first installed the RAID controller with no devices connected and booted into Windows to install the drivers for it. I broke the mirror in Windows and then shutdown the server and removed the 2940 SCSI card and connected the drives to the new RAID controller. When I turned the server back on it found the drives but marked them as legacy arrays. It would then say that no Operating System was found. Any suggestions?
I tried to do an in-place upgrade as well but during the Windows 2000 setup it could not find an OS installed either.
I first installed the RAID controller with no devices connected and booted into Windows to install the drivers for it. I broke the mirror in Windows and then shutdown the server and removed the 2940 SCSI card and connected the drives to the new RAID controller. When I turned the server back on it found the drives but marked them as legacy arrays. It would then say that no Operating System was found. Any suggestions?
I tried to do an in-place upgrade as well but during the Windows 2000 setup it could not find an OS installed either.
- Thread starter
- #8
hywaydave,
Going back: Did you check the card driver ver from the old card to the new card? As I stated if they are not equivalent, there is a high possibility that you will have to reformat them.
I was not refering to initializing(formating) when I asked about enabling. You need to inform your SYS BIOS what drive(s)/controller it will use for booting. As you have not specified your mobo/system, all I can say is that somewhere in your system BIOS there will be a boot order setting & BIOS must see this drive(s) to allow establishing it as the boot device. Some sys BIOS's also allow/require you to set/enable the controller/drive(s) first to allow them to be seen and set as a boot device.
On booting, the hardware card will load it's own BIOS after the system BIOS loads and you should be prompted to press an "F" key to enter the Card BIOS, many use "F4". In this BIOS setup you can specify the drives & the RAID type you want to use. Do you have the Adaptec Manual for this card? All of this should be covered there. You can down load a PDF version of the manual if you do not have one from Adaptec.
rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
Going back: Did you check the card driver ver from the old card to the new card? As I stated if they are not equivalent, there is a high possibility that you will have to reformat them.
I was not refering to initializing(formating) when I asked about enabling. You need to inform your SYS BIOS what drive(s)/controller it will use for booting. As you have not specified your mobo/system, all I can say is that somewhere in your system BIOS there will be a boot order setting & BIOS must see this drive(s) to allow establishing it as the boot device. Some sys BIOS's also allow/require you to set/enable the controller/drive(s) first to allow them to be seen and set as a boot device.
On booting, the hardware card will load it's own BIOS after the system BIOS loads and you should be prompted to press an "F" key to enter the Card BIOS, many use "F4". In this BIOS setup you can specify the drives & the RAID type you want to use. Do you have the Adaptec Manual for this card? All of this should be covered there. You can down load a PDF version of the manual if you do not have one from Adaptec.
rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
- Thread starter
- #10
OK. This is what has been done on this server....
I tried switching my HD from a 2940 to a 2120S RAID controller first. I first installed the Windows drivers before I attached the HD to it. When I rebooted it told me that no OS could be found (the 2940 card was already removed).
Then I put the HD back on the 2940 card so I could boot back to the OS. We then installed a 29320 card so that we could reattach an Exabyte Mammoth-2 tape drive into the server (it was away for repairs). So now I have a HD on the 2940 and a tape drive on the 29320. Since I have put the tape drive back with the 29320, the HD has been acting wierd. I receive a BSOD when the ArcServe tried to do a back up (I first get disk errors in the event log before it blue screens). So now I'm not doing any backup jobs on that server, and it has not blue screened since. But I'm trying to rebuild my mirror, but within disk management it says "regenerating". Any suggestions.....
My ultimate goal would be to get these HD onto the 2120S RAID controller without losing the OS and data.
I tried switching my HD from a 2940 to a 2120S RAID controller first. I first installed the Windows drivers before I attached the HD to it. When I rebooted it told me that no OS could be found (the 2940 card was already removed).
Then I put the HD back on the 2940 card so I could boot back to the OS. We then installed a 29320 card so that we could reattach an Exabyte Mammoth-2 tape drive into the server (it was away for repairs). So now I have a HD on the 2940 and a tape drive on the 29320. Since I have put the tape drive back with the 29320, the HD has been acting wierd. I receive a BSOD when the ArcServe tried to do a back up (I first get disk errors in the event log before it blue screens). So now I'm not doing any backup jobs on that server, and it has not blue screened since. But I'm trying to rebuild my mirror, but within disk management it says "regenerating". Any suggestions.....
My ultimate goal would be to get these HD onto the 2120S RAID controller without losing the OS and data.
hywaydave,
The most expedient way to accomplish this is to first backup all the HD information. Hope fully you have a spare HD, as this would provide the simplest method of creating an image of the drive complete with OS & data.
For this you might use Ghost, Acronis True Image or another that you might have or you can use a HD mfg's free utilities also to accomplish this. The utilities you would want are those that support the "spare" drive that you want to write the image to. i.e. Seagate spare drive - then seagate disk utilities.
As you stated, you can not use the tape drive backup on this server you might also try installing it to another machine and backup the server over the LAN.
Once you have your OS & data secure, connect the server HD's to the 2120 controller, following the Adaptec instructions, run the Card BIOS on bootup to configure the array. You will probably have to reformat the drives during this configuration, you will be lucky if you don't. If drives are reformatted and are part of the array configruation is successful.
You can now restore the image to the new array. Most of the mainstream HD mfg's have their utilities available on their site as a bootable ISO image. Do get these first, before starting this change over. If your spare drive and your raid drives are of different mfg's, get utilities for both.
When you tried switching from the 2940 to the 2120s did you attempt this with one drive or two?
Did you also run the config utility to indicate that this new controller was to be a bootable device?
Once again, I caution that you first generate a full image backup before you proceed ant further. As there are items that you will be trying to accomplish that can possibly cause the loss of the current data.
Keep the faith
rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
The most expedient way to accomplish this is to first backup all the HD information. Hope fully you have a spare HD, as this would provide the simplest method of creating an image of the drive complete with OS & data.
For this you might use Ghost, Acronis True Image or another that you might have or you can use a HD mfg's free utilities also to accomplish this. The utilities you would want are those that support the "spare" drive that you want to write the image to. i.e. Seagate spare drive - then seagate disk utilities.
As you stated, you can not use the tape drive backup on this server you might also try installing it to another machine and backup the server over the LAN.
Once you have your OS & data secure, connect the server HD's to the 2120 controller, following the Adaptec instructions, run the Card BIOS on bootup to configure the array. You will probably have to reformat the drives during this configuration, you will be lucky if you don't. If drives are reformatted and are part of the array configruation is successful.
You can now restore the image to the new array. Most of the mainstream HD mfg's have their utilities available on their site as a bootable ISO image. Do get these first, before starting this change over. If your spare drive and your raid drives are of different mfg's, get utilities for both.
When you tried switching from the 2940 to the 2120s did you attempt this with one drive or two?
Did you also run the config utility to indicate that this new controller was to be a bootable device?
Once again, I caution that you first generate a full image backup before you proceed ant further. As there are items that you will be trying to accomplish that can possibly cause the loss of the current data.
Keep the faith
rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
- Thread starter
- #12
They are all Seagate drives. I do not see a disk utility on their site for making HD images. I have three Seagate drives right now. A U160 and U320 drive currently mirrored on my Adaptec 2940 adapter. I have an additional U320 drive that has nothing on it. I need to get the two U320 drives working on an Adaptec 2120S card without losing any of the data, OS, etc. Please... what is the best way to do this?
Can I connect the extra U320 drive to the 2120S card and mirror it through Windows 2000? Then remove the 2940 card and HD's and boot to the 2120 card? Or do I need to image the U160 drive, install the two U320 drives on the 2120S card with RAID 1 and then put the disk image onto it? Help me please.... Thanks for the input so far though man.
Dave
Can I connect the extra U320 drive to the 2120S card and mirror it through Windows 2000? Then remove the 2940 card and HD's and boot to the 2120 card? Or do I need to image the U160 drive, install the two U320 drives on the 2120S card with RAID 1 and then put the disk image onto it? Help me please.... Thanks for the input so far though man.
Dave
hywaydave,
first you have to look harder, here is the link:
SeaTools Enterprise Edition
Next: BACKUP all required data as suggested before. As this is currently a RAID1 setup: shut the server down, unplug power to the U320 drive, and reboot. It should reboot sucessfully but indicate that the Array is degraded. This is simulating a drive failure. Assuming this is what you see. Shut down and reconnect the U320 drive and unplug the U160 drive and reboot to insure that this also boots.
Assuming this works, shut down, remove the U160 and replace with the other U320. Reboot and let the degraded array rebuild itself. When done you now have three drives with identical information on them.
Now remove the 2940 and Install the 2120s and both of the U320's. Now boot and watch for the prompt to enter the controller BIOS Utility and perform the required function to enter. Set the RAID array and the boot settings along with others that are outlined in the Adaptec manual for this controller. During this process, you will be presented with options, one being to format the drives. At this option select "NO", and at some point you should have the option to rebuild the array, select yes to this. Continue configuration until complete. Doing this will set the card BIOS to what it's function is and this information is saved to the EPROM (BIOS) chip on the controller. It should now know that it is the boot device and that it is set for RAID 1. Cross fingers and try to boot. If all went well, it will boot to the rebuilt array with no loss of data.
If all is not well: Reboot, enter card BIOS again and go through the steps to configure, following the manual. This time do not set(or unselect) this as the Boot device and proceed to set this as RAID 1 and let the utility format the drives. Now when finished you have a hardware controller configed as RAID 1 for storage. Shut down.
Install the 2940 and the U160 and boot. It should boot to the 2940 & U160. See if you have the 2120s active. If not go to ControlPanel > system > hardware devices > & find the 2120s controller and update the drivers. Reboot. Recheck availability of the 2120 drives. They should/need to be functioning.
Load SeaTools to the U160 and run. Select the setup drives(it will not allow you to select the Boot drive) and select the option that this will be a new boot drive. The app will mirror the boot drive to the new drive(s). SeaTools should guide you as to how to proceed. If not, when done shut down & remove the 2940 & U160. Boot and select to enter the Card BIOS. Only reset the card BIOS setting for Boot device. Save and exit. It should now boot to the new 2120s RAID 1 Array.
Your fall back if all this fails is to remove the 2120s, reinstall the 2940 & the U160, U320 and let the array rebuild if needed.
Hope this get you to where you need to be.
rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
first you have to look harder, here is the link:
SeaTools Enterprise Edition
Next: BACKUP all required data as suggested before. As this is currently a RAID1 setup: shut the server down, unplug power to the U320 drive, and reboot. It should reboot sucessfully but indicate that the Array is degraded. This is simulating a drive failure. Assuming this is what you see. Shut down and reconnect the U320 drive and unplug the U160 drive and reboot to insure that this also boots.
Assuming this works, shut down, remove the U160 and replace with the other U320. Reboot and let the degraded array rebuild itself. When done you now have three drives with identical information on them.
Now remove the 2940 and Install the 2120s and both of the U320's. Now boot and watch for the prompt to enter the controller BIOS Utility and perform the required function to enter. Set the RAID array and the boot settings along with others that are outlined in the Adaptec manual for this controller. During this process, you will be presented with options, one being to format the drives. At this option select "NO", and at some point you should have the option to rebuild the array, select yes to this. Continue configuration until complete. Doing this will set the card BIOS to what it's function is and this information is saved to the EPROM (BIOS) chip on the controller. It should now know that it is the boot device and that it is set for RAID 1. Cross fingers and try to boot. If all went well, it will boot to the rebuilt array with no loss of data.
If all is not well: Reboot, enter card BIOS again and go through the steps to configure, following the manual. This time do not set(or unselect) this as the Boot device and proceed to set this as RAID 1 and let the utility format the drives. Now when finished you have a hardware controller configed as RAID 1 for storage. Shut down.
Install the 2940 and the U160 and boot. It should boot to the 2940 & U160. See if you have the 2120s active. If not go to ControlPanel > system > hardware devices > & find the 2120s controller and update the drivers. Reboot. Recheck availability of the 2120 drives. They should/need to be functioning.
Load SeaTools to the U160 and run. Select the setup drives(it will not allow you to select the Boot drive) and select the option that this will be a new boot drive. The app will mirror the boot drive to the new drive(s). SeaTools should guide you as to how to proceed. If not, when done shut down & remove the 2940 & U160. Boot and select to enter the Card BIOS. Only reset the card BIOS setting for Boot device. Save and exit. It should now boot to the new 2120s RAID 1 Array.
Your fall back if all this fails is to remove the 2120s, reinstall the 2940 & the U160, U320 and let the array rebuild if needed.
Hope this get you to where you need to be.
rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
I think that a question that must be answered is: once the data migration to the two U320 drives is complete and the 2120s installed in place of the 2940 adapter, will the currently installed Windows 2000 SCSI driver for the Adaptec 2940 work with the new 2910S RAID controller?
- Thread starter
- #15
I can't build a RAID 1 array through the Controller utility. According to Adaptec's site, the HDs need to be initialized by the RAID controller before they can be used in an array.
I don't see anywhere in the help index on the Seagate software about mirroring the drive.
If I have data on the U320 drives (after mirroring them in Windows 2000) I can't just go into the controller utility and set the RAID array, won't the drives have to be initialized? Thus losing my data?
I can't try any of this until after-hours tonight, but I want to make sure I have everything clear.... Thanks again!
- Thread starter
- #16
Also, since I've had the 29320 scsi card with the tape drive attached to it (nothing else). Disk management has been acting wierd. It took forever to make any progress when regenerating my mirror, and now when I bring up disk management, it just says "connecting to logical disk management service" but never shows me my disk information. Do you think I'll be safe in shutting the server down tonight? I don't even know if the mirroring process completed, but there is nothing in the event logs that show something is wrong.
- Thread starter
- #17
I think what I'm taking away from your explanation, is that I need to connect both U320 drives to the RAID controller and set my array to RAID 1. Boot the server with the 2940 and U160 drive along with the RAID controller and two U320 drives attached. Then go into Windows Disk Management and mirror the two drives (it should only show one drive from the RAID controller because it's a hardware mirror correct?)
After the drives are mirrored, remove the 2940 and U160 drive and set the RAID controller as the boot device. Do you think this will work? Do you think I need to modify the boot.ini file for any of this?
After the drives are mirrored, remove the 2940 and U160 drive and set the RAID controller as the boot device. Do you think this will work? Do you think I need to modify the boot.ini file for any of this?
hywaydave,
I can't build a RAID 1 array through the Controller utility. According to Adaptec's site, the HDs need to be initialized by the RAID controller before they can be used in an array.
You really need to read the manual!! Your Hd's are initialized, and what you are hoping is that As they are from an Adaptec array(2940) that the 2120s will see them. From the ACU utility(adaptec's config), that you start from the boot screen "ctrl+A", you can select view arrays.
I don't see anywhere in the help index on the Seagate software about mirroring the drive.
Again, I stated that you will select the drive to setup, you will be asked if this is a data(storage) drive or a new boot drive. Guess what you should select.
If I have data on the U320 drives (after mirroring them in Windows 2000) I can't just go into the controller utility and set the RAID array, won't the drives have to be initialized?
You are not following me on this. You will not use windows for any configuration of these drives. YOU MUST Use the adaptec's config utility to mirror them, to set them as bootable, EVERYTHING. If after you have a problem you will use the adaptec utility to Fix it.
Thus losing my data?
Again, I have cautioned you to backup and have provided you with a method so that you also have a full image (yourU160). I have from the start said that you might have to start with clean formatted drives. Additionally, have provided a basic procedure if you do have to format the array. If you have backed it up and have the U160 image I don't understand how you think you will lose all your data.
Adaptec Manual download site: Get them & read them!
rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
I can't build a RAID 1 array through the Controller utility. According to Adaptec's site, the HDs need to be initialized by the RAID controller before they can be used in an array.
You really need to read the manual!! Your Hd's are initialized, and what you are hoping is that As they are from an Adaptec array(2940) that the 2120s will see them. From the ACU utility(adaptec's config), that you start from the boot screen "ctrl+A", you can select view arrays.
I don't see anywhere in the help index on the Seagate software about mirroring the drive.
Again, I stated that you will select the drive to setup, you will be asked if this is a data(storage) drive or a new boot drive. Guess what you should select.
If I have data on the U320 drives (after mirroring them in Windows 2000) I can't just go into the controller utility and set the RAID array, won't the drives have to be initialized?
You are not following me on this. You will not use windows for any configuration of these drives. YOU MUST Use the adaptec's config utility to mirror them, to set them as bootable, EVERYTHING. If after you have a problem you will use the adaptec utility to Fix it.
Thus losing my data?
Again, I have cautioned you to backup and have provided you with a method so that you also have a full image (yourU160). I have from the start said that you might have to start with clean formatted drives. Additionally, have provided a basic procedure if you do have to format the array. If you have backed it up and have the U160 image I don't understand how you think you will lose all your data.
Adaptec Manual download site: Get them & read them!
rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
- Thread starter
- #20
In the Array Configuration Utility is lists the drive as a legacy array. Won't I still need to change this to a RAID 1? If I go to create an array in the ACU, it says there are no free initialized drive space available to create arrays, please initialize drive(s) to create free drive space for creating arrays.
Boot drive?
Don't you mean the Seagate utility to mirror them? Thanks again.
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